McGrath Donovan and Marten Lutz - Colloquial Swahili: The Complete Course for Beginners

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Exercise 8

Match the people in column A with their opposite in column B.

E.g. Mama Baba

Mtoto wa kiume Bibi

Dada Bamdogo

Mama Mvulana

Mume Wavulana

Msichana Kaka

Mamdogo Baba

Babu Mtoto wa kike

Wasichana Mke

4 Kusaﬁri

Travelling

In this unit you will learn:

• the future tense -ta-

• how to travel by train

• how to ask/say the time and date in Swahili

• how to describe periods of the day/week

• the object concord

Dialogue 1

Leo and Victoria are at the booking ofﬁce at the TAZARA Railway

Station to buy some tickets for their journey

1 What time of the year do they wish to travel?

2 How many tickets do they want to buy?

:(To the clerk at the station booking ofﬁce): Shikamoo!

ARANI

: Marahaba!

: Habari za asubuhi?

ARANI

: Salama tu. Karibuni!

EO AND

ICTORIA

: Asante.

: Tunataka kusaﬁri kwenda Zambia.

ARANI

: Mtakwenda lini?

: Tutakwenda wakati wa Pasaka, mwezi wa nne.

ARANI

: Mnataka kukata tiketi ngapi?

: Tunataka kukata tiketi nne, lakini hatuna pesa leo.

Tutarudi na pesa kesho au Jumanne.

: (To the clerk at the station booking ofﬁce): My

respects!

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LERK

: Your respects are most welcome!

: How’s the morning?

LERK

: Just peaceful. Welcome!

EO AND

ICTORIA

: Thanks.

: We want to travel to Zambia.

LERK

: When will you be going?

: We’ll go during Easter, in April.

LERK

: How many tickets do you want to buy?

: We want to buy four tickets. However, we don’t have

any money today. We’ll return with some money

tomorrow or on Tuesday.

Vocabulary

TAZARA TAnzania–ZAmbia RAilway

karani clerk

-saﬁri travel (kusaﬁri, to travel)

wakati time

Pasaka Easter

mwezi month (also moon)

wa nne fourth (of month, lit. of four)

-kata cut (idiomatic: -kata tiketi, buy tickets)

-ngapi? how much?/many? (in reference to tiketi)

pesa money

leo today

-rudi return, come back

kesho tomorrow

Jumanne Tuesday

Language use

Days of the week

Jumamosi Saturday (lit. ﬁrst day)

Jumapili Sunday (lit. second day)

Jumatatu Monday (lit. third day)

Jumanne Tuesday (lit. fourth day)

Jumatano Wednesday (lit. ﬁfth day)

Alhamisi Thursday (also Alhamis)

Ijumaa Friday

Months of the year

Januari or Mwezi wa Kwanza January

(lit. ﬁrst month)

Februari or Mwezi wa Pili February

Machi or Mwezi wa Tatu March

Aprili or Mwezi wa Nne April

Mei or Mwezi wa Tano May

Juni or Mwezi wa Sita June

Julai or Mwezi wa Saba July

Agosti or Mwezi wa Nane August

Septemba or Mwezi wa Tisa September

Oktoba or Mwezi wa Kumi October

Novemba or Mwezi wa Kumi November

na Moja

Desemba or Mwezi wa Kumi December

(also Disemba) na Mbili

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Language structure

The future tense

When talking about events in the future, the tense marker -ta- is

used. As usual, it is combined with the subject concord and the

verb stem. Monosyllabic verbs take the stem marker -ku-:

Subject Tense Verb

concord marker stem

ni ta kwenda nitakwenda (I will go)

m ta soma mtasoma (you (pl.) will read/

study)

i ta ﬁka itaﬁka (it will arrive (of an

inanimate N-class noun

such as treni))

The corresponding negative future tense is formed with the nega-

tive marker:

Negative Subject Tense Verb

marker concord marker stem

ha tu ta kwenda hatutakwenda

(we will not go)

h u ta soma hutasoma (you

(sing.) will not

read/study)

si ta saﬁri sitasaﬁri (I will not

travel)

ha zi ta ﬁka hazitaﬁka (they will

not arrive (of an

inanimate N-class

plural noun))

Exercise 1

Translate the following sentences into English:

1 Tunataka kwenda Zambia kwa treni.

2 Hamtakwenda Malawi?

3 Hatutakwenda Malawi.

4 Je, utarudi?

5 Sitarudi mimi. Bwana Leo atarudi kesho.

Exercise 2

You have planned a trip to Mombasa, travelling by train. You will

leave on Wednesday and return on Friday. Today, Monday, you

meet Amos on the bus. He asks you the following questions which

you duly, in Swahili, answer:

1 Bibi/Bwana! Habari yako?

2 Je, utakwenda Nairobi?

3 Utakwenda kesho?

4 Utarudi lini?

5 Haya safari njema!

Dialogue 2

Before completing their travel arrangements the students decide to

seek additional information

1 The students ask for tickets for which class of travel?

2 What is the price for each of these tickets?

3 What days of the week does the train not run?

: Tiketi ni bei gani?

ARANI

: Bei ya tiketi ya daraja la kwanza ni shilingi elfu

thelathini na tatu, na bei ya tiketi ya daraja la pili ni

shilingi elfu ishirini na tano. Mnataka tiketi za daraja

gani?

: Tunataka tiketi za daraja la pili. Je, treni itaondoka

lini?

ARANI

: Siku za Jumatatu, Alhamisi na Jumamosi, treni itaon-

doka saa tano kamili asubuhi. Siku za Jumanne na

Ijumaa, treni itaondoka saa kumi na moja kasoro

dakika tano jioni.

ICTORIA

: Safari hii itachukua muda gani?

ARANI

: Itachukua muda wa masaa arobaini na mawili hivi.

ICTORIA

: Loh! Ni safari ndefu sana!

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: What price are the tickets?

LERK

: The price for a ﬁrst-class ticket is thirty-three thousand

shillings and the price for a second-class ticket is twenty-

ﬁve thousand shillings. What class of tickets do you

require?

: We want second-class tickets. When will the train leave?

LERK

: On Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the train will

depart at precisely eleven o’clock in the morning. On

Tuesdays and Fridays, the train will depart at ﬁve

minutes to ﬁve in the evening.

ICTORIA

: How long will this journey take?

LERK

: It will take about forty-two hours.

ICTORIA

: Gosh! It’s a very long journey!

Vocabulary

bei price

gani? what?, what sort of?, which?

daraja rank, position, class

kwanza ﬁrst, ﬁrstly

pili second, secondly, next

-ondoka leave, depart

siku day(s)

saa hour(s), clock(s), watch(es)

kamili exactly (perfect(ly), complete(ly))

kasoro less (minus)

dakika minute(s)

jioni evening

safari journey(s), (occasion(s), time(s))

muda time, period of time, a while

masaa hours (pl.)

Loh! expression of surprise

ndefu (adj.) long, tall (in reference to safari)

Exercise 3

Translate the following Swahili sentences into English:

1 Tutakwenda Kenya.

2 Mtaondoka leo?

3 Hapana, hatutaondoka leo. Tutaondoka mwezi wa tatu.

4 Mtakata tiketi ngapi?

5 Tutakata tiketi nne.

Language points

Time

The Swahili day runs from dawn to sunset, i.e. 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and

then from sunset to dawn, i.e., 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.; not from midnight

to midday. The Swahili numbering of the hours is in accordance

with twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness; thus

the Swahili day starts after the ﬁrst hour of sunrise saa moja

(7 a.m.), the second saa mbili (8 a.m.) and so on. It is the same

with the hours of darkness: thus the night begins after the ﬁrst

hour after sunset saa moja (7 p.m.), saa mbili (8 p.m.), saa tatu

(9 p.m.), and so on. In other words there is a six-hour time differ-

ence between what is shown on the Swahili clock and what is

known as ‘standard time’: 12 o’clock standard time is 6 o’clock on

the Swahili clock. From the standard time system Swahili time can

be calculated in the following manner:

1 From 7 a.m. to 12 noon, and from 7 p.m. to midnight, subtract

6 from the standard time to get the corresponding Swahili time.

e.g. 7–6=1 saa moja

8–6=2 saa mbili

9–6=3 saa tatu, etc.

2 From 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., and from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., add 6 to get

the Swahili time.

e.g. 1 + 6 = 7 saa saba

2+6=8 saa nane

3+6=9 saa tisa

You may ﬁnd it easier to note that Swahili time is the number on

the clock face opposite standard time, e.g. 1 is opposite 7, 2 is

opposite 8, etc.

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Exercise 4

Give the Swahili times shown by these clocks:

Language use

Asking the time

Saa ngapi? What’s the time? (lit. How many hours?)

Ni saa ngapi? What’s the time? (lit. It is how many

hours?)

Saa ngapi sasa? or

Sasa ni saa ngapi? What time is it now?

Ni saa . . . The time is . . .

Sasa ni saa . . . The time now is . . .

Sasa ni saa moja The time now is seven o’clock in the

usiku. evening.

Sasa ni saa sita The time now is twelve o’clock in the

mchana. daytime (noon).

(a) (b)

(d)

(e)

(c)

(f)

Asking the date

Leo ni tarehe gani?

What is the date today? (lit. Today is which date?)

Leo ni tarehe ngapi?

What is the date today? (lit. Today is how many dates?)

Leo ni tarehe . . .

Today’s date is . . .

Leo ni tarehe kumi na sita, mwezi wa kumi na moja

(/mwezi wa Novemba)

Today is the sixteenth of November

Periods of the day

alfajiri dawn (Muslim First Prayer) (about 4 a.m.)

asubuhi morning (6 a.m. to 10 a.m.)

mchana daytime (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.)

adhuhuri noon (noon to 2 p.m.)

alasiri late afternoon (3 p.m. to 5 p.m.)

magharibi sunset (also means west)

jioni evening (5 p.m. to 8 p.m.)

usiku night (also means at night)

siku day (24 hours)

kutwa all day (the whole day)

kucha all night (the whole night)

Exercise 5

Read the passage below and replace the European time shown in

the brackets with the appropriate Swahili time, including the period

of the day. For example:

Treni itaondoka Dar es Salaam saa (6 a.m.) kuﬁka Pugu saa

(11 a.m.).

Treni itaondoka Dar es Salaam saa kumi na mbili asubuhi

kuﬁka Pugu saa tano mchana.

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